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Centurion 541...opinions?

B

Bona Fide

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 26, 2005
Messages
2,382
To be honest, I'm getting sick of my full tower. It feels really bloated - I'm only using 3 of the expansion slots and there's a lot of empty space. On top of all that, it's huge and I have to leave it on the floor. Hence, I'm gonna make the move to SFF. I haven't heard much about the 541 in the SFF area, I guess mainly because it doesn't "technically" count as an SFF case. But, seeing as it only allows mATX motherboards, I'd consider it fair game.

I'm not much for the orthodox SFF cases because there's things I don't like about every one of them.

Aspire X-QPack - Flimsy aluminum construction (so I've heard), only one fan, useless power supply.
Shuttle SN25P - Minimal expansion room, propreitary motherboard and power supply, too constricted.
Silverstone SG1 - Again, too constricted. Not so sure about the tiny fans used either. Also rather expensive.

So, I've been looking at the Centurion 541 and it doesn't look too bad. It has room for one 120mm fan and two 80mm fans. The stupid part is that no fans are included, but I can get over that if the case is excellent beyond that. I've already ordered the Biostar Tforce-939 and I just sold my X1800XT. I have enough money to buy a 7900GT, which I will probably do, since I wasn't much for a double-slot video card anyway. Besides those two, all the parts will be carried over from my current computer.

Any opinions, comments, things I should watch out for? If not, I'm going to pull the trigger by tomorrow. It's $50 shipped at Zipzoomfly, which I think is an excellent deal.
 
After reading reviews on the 541, I decided the pseudo-BTX form factor could prove difficult for coping with all the cables coming out of the power supply, and ended up going with the Ever Case ECE3505 instead, which has space for a 120mm fan in the front and back, is built well and is a more standard configuration. It's $31.25 + $15.99 shipping at NewEgg, though keep in mind you'll have to buy a couple of 120mm fans as well (I picked up a couple of Mechatronics - 1500RPM, 55CFM, 25dBA). I really like it.
 
Whatever works for you. Comes down to personal preference. There are major complaints I have with all of the offerings out now, so it basically comes down to how much you want to spend on a case, freedom vs cutesy factor and noise vs airflow.

One major problem with the Centurion is it is still made out of steel so it's going to be about the same as dragging a full tower around, just in a smaller package.
 
I thought that the case itself was ok. although with a more standard ATX design I would have liked it more. As it was, it wasn't very much smaller than my Antec LANboy, a whole lot heavier, with almost no room to work inside. No motherboard tray means that everything is layered in, and in order to get at something, generally i was having to pull something to reach something else.

The case itself was nice, with lots of airflow (especially with good cable management), dust filters, etc. if really heavy for its size.

Rhino
 
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